Books from countries around the world should...besides detailing their native country's histories and thought processes that defined those histories...address current world challenges and the particular country's feelings, thoughts and possible solutions to those challenges.

Beijing's 17th annual International Book Fair, which begins on Monday in Beijing, and which attracts more and more foreign publishers and authors, is becoming a great venue for exchange of cultural messages and increasing ...Continue reading ...

Self-publishing is growing up and coming into it's own right before our eyes; but, traditional publishing (TP) still has tons to offer...and with the right flexibility and adaptability, TP will continue to offer great publishing options.

Boyd Morrison, published author of The Ark, wrote this for The Huffington Post:

To Self-Publish or Not to Self-Publish

When I was looking for a publisher in the olden days of 2008 (47 years ago in ebook time), it seemed clear that the way to make a living as a...

Dreck, defined as trash or rubbish, has become a buzz word in publishing to denote what some agent or publisher thinks is a bad manuscript/project.

Well, examining the history of traditional publishing proves their track record on what is dreck or not is pretty dismal...at best, a 50% success rate. REALLY hit and miss. Just read all the horror stories of past great writers (such as Faulkner and Hemingway) who were turned down multiple times before their masterpiece was finally published! The w...Continue reading ...

Talk about hard work just surviving. The much anticipated YA novel Mockingjay, the last forecasted big seller in the printed book world for the foreseeable future, has the brick and mortar bookstores jumping through hoops to put on all sorts of parties to announce it's debut...even dress-up, costume parties at midnight for goodness sake.

God bless them all! I do wish them much success because I do love bookstores and feel they will always have a place.

A good editor does NOT just start chopping away at a clients manuscript. They should give the entire work a complete read through first, only correcting minor and obvious punctuation errors...This is to give the editor a sense of the writers style, form and nuances.Rachel Mattison published a short, to-the-point article for Wordpreneurthat gives us a good insight into how a professional editor should approach his/her job:

Four days ago I posted "Is Freedom of Speech Being Chased Out of America?" which introduced the story of WikiLeaks and it's owner Julian Assange.

Julian fled to Sweden to avoid the possibility of having his site shut down here in America due to his publishing sensitive Pentagon documents...How did he get the docs and are they really worth all the fuss? I don't know. But, I do wonder about the efficiency of the Pentagon.

A cool look into the salaries of various professionals in the publishing industry, from executive management to editors and assistants...Interesting stuff...From the salaries, I guess publishing is surviving or at least hasn't hit rock bottom yet!

From PW:

Last year our annual salary survey asked "How Low Can You Go?" and the answer is 2.1%. That is the average industry raise reported in 2009, the lowest raise in at least six years and more than a full percentage point below the meager 3.3% rai...Continue reading ...

A consumer survey conducted by consultants with Oliver Wyman for Next Issue Media determined that consumers were willing to pay for good mag and newspaper digital content...Details follow from an article by Eric Sass in MediaPostNews:

Digital issues of magazines could generate $3 billion in subscription revenues for magazine and newspaper publishers by 2014, according to a consumer survey conducted by consultants with Oliver Wyman on behalf of Next Issue Media, a consort...

"Taken together, particularly with the exclusive control over distribution, and these are the characteristics of a publisher. Apple has effectively become the only publisher for iOS, except it has done it in a way where the developers, who clearly do all of their work on speculation, are responsible if Apple’s customers return products of it there are legal issues. It’s all the upside of publishing someone else’s software with virtually none of the downside."... Excerpt from Erik Sherma...Continue reading ...

Today, the publishing industry is being driven by technology more than ever before. As business models evolve, the right technology can make or break new products, from the back-end of a Web site to new customer-facing channels such as mobile and tablet apps.

Nomad Editions, a new series of digital weeklies strictly for mobile devices, will debut in October. What sets this digital mag apart is it's business model being 180 degrees off norm...Mainly seeking it's revenue from paid subscriptions versus advertising.

NE will also be paying it's writers and editors with a generous revenue sharing program...This could be a substantial living...IF NE IS SUCCESSFUL!

Being a blogger myself, I have often wondered and dreamed about ways to monetize blogs...

Well, I came across a Wordpreneur article by Colleen Slater that gives an excellent suggestion for monetizing your blogging experience PLUS it gives a link to many other ways to turn your blog and blogging into a money tree!

I had to share...especially since Colleen claims to make $15,000 per month blogging:

You hear about it all the time, people who blog for money. Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?

Inkpop.com, owned by Harper Collins, is fast becoming a place where new, teen writers can share their work. Any kind of writing from poems and short stories to complete novels are accepted. Their work can get feedback from a large community and be recognized for possible publication by the big houses and/or representation by literary agents.

Cool stuff.

Inkpop.com was brought to my attention in this article from the Kansas City Star by Chuck Furlong (sorry I could not find a good link fo...

In a society that wants to sue everybody for anything, you need to know how to write a legal disclaimer for your book. Especially ANY book giving advice or books on health, nutrition, finances and memoirs where characters may defame another...intentionally or not.

In the e-book price wars, Apple and Amazon might be enjoying an unfair advantage, Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Monday as he announced an investigation of their contracts with book publishers.

When Newsweek went on the auction block back in May, some good bidders appeared...as well as some unsavory bidders. Thank the journalism god for disposing of the junk-journalistic bidders and keeping Newsweek a mainstream, professional news source!

The deal is done and the announcement has been made: The Washington Post Co. has wrapped up its auction of Newsweek, selling the ailing newsweekly to audio magnate Sidney Harman. The deal was announce...Continue reading ...

Many people believe that content farms, that perhaps deal in quantity over quality, leads to poor quality. Well, these sites give aspiring authors a podium for sharpening their skills and should trigger more accomplished writers to improve upon sub-par articles by writing new articles on similiar subjects...Either way, these sites, I believe, have a positive function.

Have you ever read a story or article that was punctuated perfectly and otherwise textually and technically perfect also...but ...

About Me

John R. Austin

Pueblo, Colorado

Writer, Old-Warrior-Adventurer, Blogger... I was born in Key West, Florida. A rather famous hangout for some past famous writers: Hemingway and Tennessee Williams to name two. I just hope that I possess a glimmer of their talent. I have a bachelors degree in architecture/construction and a master's degree in industrial engineering. I have been writing for fifty plus years. Most of my writing has been in the technical, instructional and business areas. I am working on my first book: "Havana Harvest---When Cuba Was Naughty" which details my coming of age experiences in 1958 Havana, Cuba, at the age of 15. Please visit my other blog "Writers Welcome Blog" at http://alturl.com/4z88.